Football news

Portuguese Benfica is hesitant to transfer their defender Tomas Tavares to Spartak Moscow, who are very interested in this 21-year-old football player. The reason for the fears of the Portuguese club is in the memorandum of cooperation with Shakhtar Donetsk, according to insider Ivan Karpov in his telegram channel.

The source writes about the presence of several reasons why the transfer of Tavares may not take place. First of all, Benfica is afraid of reputational losses if a player is sold to Russia. The Portuguese club, within the framework of the mentioned memorandum of cooperation with Shakhtar, has already taken part in a joint humanitarian action to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.

In addition, Benfica fears problems with money transfers due to sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation as a terrorist country.

Finally, on top of everything else, Benfica has an offer from the club from Turkey to Tavares, which includes a solid percentage from the further resale of the player.

The well-known Ukrainian journalist and commentator Roberto Morales commented on reports about the alleged return of Yaroslav Rakytskyi to Shakhtar.

— Rakitsky has a good pass, but he is bad in defense. He lacked speed before, and now he will lack it even more. As Bayern thrashed Shakhtar 7-0 in the Champions League, Rakitsky looked awful.

Yaroslav's reputation among most Ukrainian fans is not the best. His transfer to Zenit during Russia's war against Ukraine is a stain on his entire career. It's good that he came to his senses and left the club, but it's still unacceptable, Morales said on the TaToTake broadcast.

so-called. RFU General Secretary Maxim Mitrofanov spoke about the alleged start of UEFA's work on "the return of Russian teams to international tournaments."

- UEFA will have a working group. They form this working group. It should include representatives of FIFA and other international organizations, including the RFU. There has already been communication. Considering that UEFA and FIFA, by and large, only started work yesterday after the holidays. It was in the mode of telephone conversations and personal contacts. Now it is in the mode of daily formal communication. This week, UEFA should decide on the composition of the working group.

Naturally, the political will is decisive. Then there are questions that are related to what was agreed upon and in what time frame. It is clear that these are not nine people locked in one room and not released until an agreement is reached. The process is more complex. It’s just that the formal composition of the group, the apparatus of UEFA, FIFA, the IOC, the RFU will interact, prepare documentation, options for some proposals, concessions, agreements, and so on,” the official explained vaguely to the local media.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) paid the so-called. Russian Football Union (RFU) $8 million.

Maxim Mitrofanov, Secretary General of the RFU, spoke about this. “We recently received $8 million from UEFA for one of the programs,” he told local media.

Former Dynamo Moscow footballer Leandro Fernandez, an Argentinean, commented on the possible merging of Russian football from UEFA into the Asian Confederation.

- There are smart people in the RFS. I hope that if a decision is made to transfer Russian football to Asia, the RPL and all football in Russia will only grow. Such a transition will benefit only the RFU, but not UEFA," Fernandez told the local media.

The Czech coach of the Russian "Orenburg" Marcel Lichka does not experience any moral problems due to the fact that he continues to work for the aggressor country.

“Of course, what is happening in Ukraine is very sad. I never thought something like this could happen in the twenty-first century. But I always said that sport is out of politics, while I worked in Russia even earlier. Finally, I have a valid contract with Orenburg, so I don't care about the rest.

Moreover, I cannot say that my acquaintances condemn me for continuing to work in Russia. They understand that I am here for the sake of sport, ”iSport.cz quotes Lichka.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed the list of Russian athletes and other figures prepared earlier by the Verkhovna Rada against whom sanctions are imposed.

The list includes the former player of Shakhtar and the Ukrainian national team, and now the coach of the Russian Zenit from St. Petersburg Anatoly Tymoshchuk.

Recall that the sanctions include, in particular, the blocking of assets on the territory of Ukraine, the restriction of trade operations, the ban on entry into the territory of the country and the deprivation of state awards.

Ufa CEO Shamil Gazizov thinks that his club will receive a payment from London Arsenal in connection with the acquisition of Ukrainian defender Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City.

Recall that Zinchenko once played in Ufa, and it was from this club that he moved to Manchester City in 2016. According to the terms of that transition, the Russian club is entitled to a percentage of the further sale of a football player.

- "Ufa" in any case will receive money for Zinchenko. The only question is the timing," Match TV quoted Gazizov as saying.

Arsenal has not yet voiced its position on this matter, but earlier the media reported that the Gunners could not make a payment to Ufa due to international sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation as a terrorist country.

Former midfielder of Dynamo Kyiv Serhiy Rybalka, who now plays for Oleksandriya, shared his opinion about the Spanish coach Raul Riancho, who at one time was part of the coaching staff of the White-Blues when Serhiy Rebrov was the team's mentor.

“When Rebrov first headed Dynamo, Raul helped him a lot. But about a year later, it just turned out to be superfluous. The Spaniard didn’t give anything new to the team, Rebrov, by and large, didn’t need him anymore. At the same time, Raul often began to behave like a head coach. As a result, Rebrov removed him.

Raul Riancho as a person disappointed me a lot. He is a good coach and tactician. But as a person... All I hear from him is how he worries about the Russian football players, and he never once wondered how the Ukrainian football players are, how are their families, children.

Raul in the national team? At first, he also ran out of the coaching bench as a head coach. But Shevchenko immediately reined him in, told him: "If you have something, tell me, and then I will inform the team." And after that, Raul didn’t run anywhere,” Rybalka said on the air of the Youtube channel “Direct Chervona”.

Former Ukrainian and player of the Ukrainian national team, and now the coach of the Russian "Zenith" from St. Petersburg Anatoly Tymoshchuk is included in the sanctions list of Russian athletes from the Verkhovna Rada.

The list includes such famous figures as Alina Kabaeva, Roman Kostomarov, Evgeniy Plushenko, Irina Rodnina, Nikolai Valuev, Alexander Povetkin, Anatoly Karpov, Sergey Karyakin, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Svetlana Zhurova.

The "Football" section includes: Roman Shirokov, Dmitry Tarasov, Anatoly Tymoshchuk.

The sanctions provide, in particular, for the blocking of assets on the territory of Ukraine, the restriction of trade operations, the ban on entry into the territory of Ukraine, and the deprivation of state awards of Ukraine.

A native of Lutsk, former Ukrainian footballer Anatoly Tymoshchuk gave an interview to the fan movement of the Russian football club Zenit, where he works as an assistant head coach.

Tymoshchuk said that he does not feel the difference between Ukrainians and Russians, their mentality, and Zenit is his home, and so far everything suits him there. As for the criticism he received for not supporting Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion, he replied:

“People will always say both bad and good, and those who say how bad I am, let them remember how many matches I played for the Ukrainian national team and how much benefit I brought to it. The fact that I am silent about CBO does not mean that I support it or not. Everyone has their own position, mine is that not everything is so simple, so I try not to talk about it."

Our wild eastern neighbors played regular matches of the national cup today. In one of them, the local football leaders Zenit and Spartak once met. Now, expelled from civilized football, they are more practiced in "combat" martial arts.

The fight began at 90+6 minutes of the game and ended with six removals - three in each of the groups.

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